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One of the many, many early difficulties facing Peter Jackson's two-part prequel to his "Lord of the Rings" series, "The Hobbit," was that "The Office" star Martin Freeman, the director's first choice for the lead role of Bilbo Baggins, was committed to shoot a second series of the BBC's hit Arthur Conan Doyle reboot "Sherlock" this summer. If you haven't seen the show, from "Doctor Who" head honcho, and "The Adventures of Tintin" scribe, Steven Moffat, and former "League of Gentleman" member Mark Gatiss, it's pretty ace: there was one duff episode in the first three, but the other two were smart, funny, genuinely thrilling and an entirely successful reinvigoration of one of the most famous characters in popular literature.

“It’s all that okra that she eats,” says ’night, Mother’s matriarch, Thelma Cates (Anne Bancroft), to her daughter, Jessie (Sissy Spacek), to explain why the older woman’s closest friend, an eccentric named Agnes, is the way she is. “You can’t just willy-nilly eat okra two meals a day and expect to get away with it. Made her crazy!” This is later revealed as a white lie—Thelma is trying to hide the fact that Agnes doesn’t come around because she’s simply spooked by Jessie (and her cold hands)—but what matters here is that it momentarily passes for truth: Okra is a staple in the town where Jessie and Thelma live, and local superstition suggests that the vegetable has the ability to disrupt normal behavior.

Since the start of the year, we haven't been shy about our opinion that "X-Men: First Class" seemed to be the most promising of the four superhero entries landing this summer. The cast is great, Matthew Vaughn looks ready to step up a level, and the trailers have been among the best-cut of the year. But things haven't all been rosy: rumors of a lengthy, chaotic shoot have been rife, and the posters have been as bad as the trailers have been good, while the most recent clip for the film seemed rushed and weightless.

What we know off-screen always shapes how we watch, and tonight's season finale of House is sure to resonate in a different way because we know that Lisa Edelstein hasn't renewed her contract for next season and won't be returning as Cuddy. I can't say I'm sorry.

Says She'll Head Straight From 'Hunger Games' To SetUpdate: Entertainment Weekly has taken down their story and sources close to the project tell us that Lawrence is not attached to the film. Considering her comments, one must assume there has been some discussions, but no deal has been signed as of yet.

Meredith Brody continues to cut a swath through spring film fests, moving from San Francisco to Seattle. Amazingly, there are still films she has not seen! Take that, you measly ten-day and two-week film festivals: the Seattle International Film Festival, 37 years old and counting, runs from May 19 to June 12, more than three weeks all told. Which is why I’m flying up for opening and closing weekend only, kind of a cruel joke for a doctrinaire completist such as myself, but still irresistible. Cannes is not the only beautiful seaside location showing movies in May!

Bless Kirsten Dunst for keeping it real in Cannes. Want to see the gauntlet of emotions that ran across her face during Lars Von Trier's rant? Check out this compilation of animated clips that track her increasing disbelief while it went down.